I like. It’s definitely not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, since it’s a melodrama through and through. But I find the premise highly addictive—and strangely, easy to identify with, despite the dramatics. I find myself rooting for a heroine to lie, cheat, and steal, which is ODD, to say the least. It’s what I hope this drama will do successfully throughout its run—make us feel for a character who makes the wrong choices at every turn. It’s curious, that. And I’m intrigued enough to follow her down the rabbit hole.

Today’s Episode 2 clocked in at 14.3%, up one percent from its premiere, followed by Baby-Faced Beauty at 12.5%, and Lie To Me at 10.5%.

EPISODE 2 RECAP

Hee-joo cheerily gets ready for work, and heads to Hotel A where she works as a maid. We see a photo on her nightstand of her and Miri as children, from the orphanage.

Yoo-hyun starts his research into the hotel biz, and finds that Jang Myung-hoon of Hotel A is his biggest competition. (I seriously want to smack the person who named the hotels. Hotel A? Like Point A to Point B? Or A Hotel, like A Key, A Nose, A Barrel of Monkeys?)

He takes his friend Chul-jin home with him to visit his parents. I like that the hero is actually a nice guy with good parental relations (though I suspect that Mother is his stepmother, they seem to have a good relationship).

He tells Dad that Jang Myung-hoon is the first person he ought to meet and learn from in this business, and that he could just as well become an ally as well as an enemy; it remains to be seen. The thing he respects is Myung-hoon’s work ethic—though born of privilege, it seems our hero doesn’t take most things for granted.

Dad seems satisfied with his son’s goals for work. But what about love? He reminds his son that he’s no spring chicken, and wants to see Yoo-hyun married soon. Yoo-hyun betrays a smile, so Dad suspects that he’s got someone in his life. He cops to having someone in mind, but is still in wait-and-see mode. Um, don’t you mean trying-to-get-her-to-know-I-exist mode?

Dad adds the importance of finding the right lifelong partner. He says that after sending his mother (so birth mother must’ve died fairly young), he wouldn’t have survived without his stepmother.

We backtrack to Miri’s meeting with Myung-hoon, where she flippantly makes the remark that it would hardly matter if she had graduated from Tokyo University—he’s clearly not just going to hire some stranger off the street.

But it’s enough to give him pause, and he stops her. To her utter shock, he tells her that those aren’t qualifications that he could turn down, and neither could anyone else. The fear sets in on her face. These aren’t words she can take back now, when he’s about to solve all her problems in one fell swoop…

She sits outside his office nervously while he discusses the matter with Director Kang, who is vehemently opposed to hiring some random person, no matter what her qualifications are. Myung-hoon starts to make his case for hiring outside the box, when they get paged: Nakamura has arrived two days earlier than anticipated, and he’s entering the hotel Right. Now.

That seals it. No time to waste over debating the merits of street casting. Myung-hoon puts Miri to work straightaway, with a mile-a-minute rundown of hotel procedure and Nakamura’s insanely particular habits. My god, he’s not the sultan of Brunei. These people sure take their VVVVVWXYZIPs seriously.

Miri gets a crash course in what is essentially an extension of concierge services, and then takes a deep breath on the elevator ride up. Myung-hoon introduces her to Nakamura, who is instantly pleased to hear his own dialect. Phew. Crisis averted.

Yoo-hyun arrives at Hotel A to check out the competition for himself. Myung-hoon gets word that Mondo Hotel’s second generation has shown up, unannounced. He considers it curiously and just tells them to keep him informed. You should probably read up on him, because he’s definitely doing his homework on you.

Yoo-hyun surveys the hotel, and runs into Hee-joo, who works there as a maid. She accidentally spills something on his shirt in the hallway, looking up at him, horrified. He very sweetly just puts his jacket on to cover it up, and smiles that it’s no biggie. She watches him walk away in awe.

Director Kang tells Miri to bring her resume and diplomas to human resources, to file for official employment, after which they’ll apply for her work visa. Oh crap. The reality of the situation finally starts to sink in, as she panics—how is she supposed to prove this outrageous lie?

She scours the internet for ways to forge the documents, and starts going to printing presses to ask if they can replicate the diplomas. They turn her down one by one, and one man simply tells her to forge them herself, with the throwaway line, “Everyone does it these days.” Oh, if you only knew the real world drama this kind of thing has caused, sir.

Meanwhile, Myung-hoon skips his wife’s concert and his absence is noted pointedly by all. He gets a call from his sister that his mother has collapsed after hearing that he and Gwi-yeon are on the brink of divorce. He rushes to his very humble country home, just in time to hop in the ambulance that’s about to take Mom to the hospital.

Miri comes back to the hotel late that night, having decided that forging the papers herself is the only way to go about this. She turns on the computer in the dark, her hands shaking, and starts to rewrite her resume.

A security guard enters the room, nearly making her jump out of her skin. She’s a nervous wreck from the guilt and fear of almost getting caught, not realizing that he’s just the security guard and doesn’t know or care what she’s doing.

She jumps again when the phone rings. It’s an emergency call from the front desk, where Gwi-yeon has arrived with her man-toy and created a scene in the lobby. Miri comes out to find the woman insisting that she get a room for the night.

What? She be crazy, yo. Who goes to her father’s/husband’s hotel with her lover to get a room for the night?

Miri tries to intervene, but just gets belittled and pushed aside by Gwi-yeon, who mocks her for being new and clearly not knowing who she is. Do YOU know who you are? Because that would predicate your not behaving in this manner, if yunno, SANITY were to dictate your actions. Just sayin’.

Director Kang shows up in time to try and talk some sense into Gwi-yeon, but she’s already off the rails tonight, and she starts screaming for the room and pitching a total fit. So Miri runs back out to try and pacify the situation, only she gets knocked to the ground for her troubles. And into a glass vase, no less.

The sight of blood is enough to stop everyone in their tracks, which is right when Myung-hoon enters, having returned from the hospital. Dude, I’m sorry your life sucks right now. Yeesh. Can I get you a drink?

He tells Miri to go to the emergency room, but she says that she’s fine. Now that her husband is here, Gwi-yeon turns it up a notch, for his benefit. She bitterly remarks that he’s fine skipping her concert, but wants to maintain appearances at his hotel (clearly she cares way more than she’d like to admit).

She starts demanding a room again, so he finally drags her home. Myung-hoon: “What are you doing?” Gwi-yeon: “Are you really asking because you don’t know? I’m doing this to annoy you. You’re dumber than I thought, if you’re asking me what I’m doing.” Well, at least she’s not hiding her motivations. Not that she’s not utterly transparent to everyone but him.

Problem is, he reacts exactly the wrong way. Clearly she wants him to get as upset as she is, so that even if they’re fighting, they’re doing so passionately. But he’s calm and detached, which is exactly the problem.

There’s another message from his sister: Mom needs surgery and it’s critical. Gwi-yeon bitterly remarks that it must be time for her to die.

He asks what she really wants. She announces that she’s long become sick of him. She’s in love with what’s-his-name (honestly, I bet SHE doesn’t even know) and she wants to cook for him and have his children. She declares that she won’t leave Myung-hoon with anything—no car, no house, no hotel, no inheritance, nothing.

And then, to her utter shock, he gives in, “Okay, do it that way. I’ll do what you want. Let’s stop this. This… isn’t it.” Her eyes betray the bluff—this was her attempt to get him to cling to her, but instead he’s giving up and packing his bags.

He takes off and stops by the river for a bout of angst. He flashes back to when he first met Gwi-yeon in the hospital. He was a doctor then, and she’d been rushed into the emergency room after an accident.

She was smitten with him from day one (who could blame her), and by the time she had recovered, she was asking him for kisses. Rawr. Ack, Kim Seung-woo, why you so hot?

Miri heads out for the night and sees Myung-hoon back in the hotel parking lot, lost in his thoughts. She heads over to say goodnight, and he apologizes for involving her in personal matters earlier.

She smiles and says that it’s fine, and then asks if he’s okay. He looks surprised at being asked, and just replies that he is. She starts to turn back to say something else, but then stops mid-sentence, and drops it.

Myung-hoon returns to work at the hotel the next morning as if nothing happened, though he’s on edge from the rumor mill and well, he’s probably just waiting for the other shoe to drop.

He runs into Miri at the service entrance, where her key card has been denied access. He lets her through and notices her bandaged hand, and asks if she’s okay. She says it’s all healed and nervously tells him that everything is fine.

Human resources tells her that without her official documentation, they can’t stop the immigration office from putting a block on her employment. (It’s certainly a stretch that the immigration office is this micro-managed, but the point is, she’s on her last leg, visa-wise.) Myung-hoon gets updated on Miri’s situation, and is told that if he files a personal request, she can get an extension for up to a week, which he does.

She buys time with the fact that the papers have to be sent from Japan, but he asks that she find a way to fax them within the day. She gets a text from one of the people she had contacted about forging paperwork, and heads out to meet him…

But when she reaches the lobby, she hears a familiar voice that stops her in her tracks. It’s Hirayama, who has come all the way from Japan in an effort to find her. He flashes a picture of her at the front desk, but gets no help. Miri freezes in panic, and then hides just in time to see him walk out.

Over at Mondo, Yoo-hyun arrives for his first day of work, and is greeted by a line of staffers. He takes the elevator up, and Hee-joo runs in, blabbering to no one in particular that she’s pitching an architectural design today.

He recognizes her and smiles to himself, and she finally turns and notices him. She asks if he doesn’t remember her, from the spill in Hotel A, and he greets her with a smile. She asks if he managed to get the stain out, and he insists that it’s no big deal. But she offers to buy him dinner instead, which is great because if she had any idea who he was, she’d never have made a peep.

He tells her that it’s fine, and notices that she’s already passed her stop on the elevator. She gets off on the wrong floor anyway, embarrassed, and awkwardly just says that she meant to get some exercise. He laughs to himself, and then picks up a cell phone charm that she’s dropped on her way out.

He attends his first board meeting by his stepmother’s side, and gives a speech to the room (in English, for the life of me I don’t know why). Mother looks on proudly and Yoo-hyun makes a good impression on his first day.

Miri goes to meet the man who offered to forge her diploma, and he leads her down a shady alley into a basement where another man is already working on it.

Myung-hoon and Gwi-yeon show up to file for their divorce, which is handled speedily, with no children and no battle over assets to speak of. Gwi-yeon asks the lawyers to clear the room, and asks Myung-hoon to say something, expecting him to plead for the hotel or ask for money.

But he does neither, and instead apologizes: “I’m sorry. More than I can say. I’m sorry… that I couldn’t make you happy. No matter what, I should’ve made you happy. But I think I made you lonely.”

He tells her that in an effort to counter the fact that he was an unworthy suitor marrying into a big house, he focused on the wrong thing. “I’m sorry. I thought that was love.” (As in: I thought that was the best way to love you.)

Both of them start welling up with tears, though hers are angry and his are contrite. He adds, “Be happy. I mean it.” Aw, sad. It’s strange how sad it is, despite the fact that she’s a lunatic. It’s probably the burst of sincerity from the gruff man. Gah. I’m such a sucker. To top it off, Myung-hoon sits outside and watches a happy family and broods over the life he’s never going to have.

Miri gets word that she’s got a week extension due to the paperwork that Myung-hoon signed, and she seeks him out to thank him. He wonders if it’s that big a deal, but she explains that something that small to him means a great deal to her.

He figures that getting documents from Japan might take longer than usual, and she just looks away guiltily. He brings up something she had mentioned when he hired her—that she ended up in Japan because of her adoption. He wistfully says that he had considered adopting once.

Miri says that he’d make a great father, but he confirms that his wife had opposed it. “Not that it would’ve made a difference in the end…” He tells her that they’ve split up, something that everyone will find out eventually, so he’s telling her himself.

She tells him that he’d be a really good dad, because he’s a good person, and it makes him smile. He wonders aloud how long it’s been since anyone’s praised him. She asks if he’s sad, and he sighs that he’s not happy, not today. But he thanks her for cheering him up anyway.

Yoo-hyun comes home with snacks in hand and offers them to the manager of the gosiwon as a housewarming gift of sorts. He asks very sweetly about the girl who lives across the hall, and finds out her name. “Jang Miri? I don’t know anything about her, but she has really pretty eyes.” That’s so cute.

He stands outside her door with an ice cream cone, debating whether or not to knock, but finally decides against it.

Miri runs into another roadblock with her diploma—the forger isn’t exactly first-rate, and tells her that he can’t manage to create an exact copy from scratch. He tells her that if she could get a real version, he’d be able to make a replica. Hm… wonder who might have one of those?

Myung-hoon gets called up with an emergency in Nakamura’s room, where a maid used his restroom in the middle of cleaning it, because uh, nature called. Nakamura threw a fit and trashed the bathroom, and Miri is nowhere to speak of.

Myung-hoon goes in to try and appease him, but he’s all worked up and demanding to be moved to another hotel. Myung-hoon rushes into the bathroom himself and starts cleaning up, on his hands and knees.

Nakamura sees this and is satisfied with this level of RVIP treatment, and tells him to shape up before he brings Japanese representatives with him next time. They manage to scrape by, but at the mention of his future visit, they start to plan for an entire Japanese staff. Director Kang asks what to do about Jang Miri.

Miri returns to find a notice posted—she’s on probation, not to mention that she’s nearing the end of her visa deadline on top of it all. She doesn’t understand why she should be held responsible and exchanges tense words with Director Kang, but thinks better of causing a ruckus and apologizes.

On her way out, Hee-joo knocks into her in a rush to get on the elevator, and Miri recognizes her in a flash. And then it dawns on her that she DOES know someone who went to Tokyo University…

She takes the stairwell to try and catch up to Hee-joo, as she flashes back to Japan, when she had visited the university with Hirayama. Hee-joo recognized her and Miri had lied that she attended the same school.

She sneaks a peek and watches as Hee-joo meets with Director Kang, who’s on familiar terms with her. Hee-joo turns down the job offer (probably for Miri’s job) because she’s busy trying to land the architectural design competition over at Mondo.

Miri follows her all the way out, debating what to do. She follows her onto the bus, and then sees her opportunity to run into her ‘coincidentally.’ She bumps into the man next to her, and then Hee-joo calls out, “Jang Miri? Miri-ya!”

COMMENTS

Oooh, interesting. I like the development of her past with Hee-joo (and I much prefer that they have already crossed paths as adults once before, thus eliminating the backstory-mystery game). She’s clearly going to be crossing over to the dark side – the temptation to All-About-Eve Hee-joo’s life is going to be too tempting to resist.

For a drama like this, I’m a fan of taking the heroine to the dark side because that’s the point of the setup (and this drama’s appeal as something different), and I can feel the conflicting morality of the story emerge—I’m already rooting for her to get the forged diploma, despite clearly knowing that it’s wrong. I’m excited to see how dark they take her, and how far down into hell we go along with her.

The minutiae of the hotel business does not interest me (and I find the dramatics of it quite laughable, really) but the characters are great so far, and I’m excited to see all the different connections start to emerge. The chemistry between Myung-hoon and Miri is already smoldering, and I can’t wait till Yoo-hyun starts competing for her affections, my incurable ajusshi crush notwithstanding. I’m scared Yoo-hyun’s going to get trampled like a helpless bunny, but I suppose we already see that roadkill from a mile away. The twist will be to see which way HER heart goes, and how much, if at all, she’ll allow herself to love either man, or both.

For serious though, this drama isn’t my cuppa but I find it very interesting to watch (as a comedy). It’s not meant to be taken that way, but the tension, the connections, the drama just make this seem a parody of what it’s attempting.

Then again, maybe I’ll come to appreciate? Who knows.
There’s some that accomplished dramatic tension with real…verve (CYHMH being this season’s example). I hope this takes that route, while being more interesting in the business sector…

The music and the shoddy camera work are bugging me. The acting and the writing are actually pretty good but I get that the tone gets weird and parody-like at times. I’ll blame that on the jarring makjang-esque score.

CYHMH went all heart so the dramatic tension was at its peak. Ripley’s anti-heroine still needs to draw us in emotionally through her journey to hell. But it’s getting there.

Finally Heejoo and Miri meet. 😀 Looking forward to more of their interactions in episode 3. Anyways, yeah the music doesn’t fit with this drama at all but I’m so into the story and characters that I’ll overlook that flaw.

Agreed completely not the best music.
Anyone know why that pimp keeps looking for Miri? She paid back the money and stuff… Dont tell me hes looking for her so he can sleep with her cause if thats it thats disgusting!

Dude have the courtesy to comment about Episode 2, other wise you just annoying the heck out of people who are trying to enjoy this drama, if you want to just rant/rave/flame go to the “Open Thread” please!!!!! Other wise do not expect people to treat you very kindly!!!!

Hey people lets try to keep the flaming wars to a minimum please!!!!!!!! : O }

So far, I like too. The premise seems very interesting and the characters likeable. Heck, I don’t even mind the plot device of the crazy (ex)wife who wants some leverage on her workaholic husband. Acting wise, everyone is knocking it out of the park. Even Yoochun because i think he is suited to play his character. I just hope that when they really get the angst rolling he can keep up.

Lee Dae Hee and Kim Seung Woo are doing an amazing job playing their roles. I especially love the subtlety to KSW’s character. He may appear like the ordinary President but to me, his character develops layers of complexity because of KSW’s acting.

I am so glad that you decided to keep this drama. Can’t wait for episode 3!

“in English, for the life of me I don’t know why”
i know why; real time ratings had the speech at an eye popping 26%

Atleast this time i didnt need english subs to understand the english.

Yoochun can speak Japanese like a native so i would have preferred him to show off more Japanese if he had to be the multilingual cheerful chaebol with a heart of gold prone to a lil bit of melancholia

yes! I’m loving the switch. It’s interesting to see “drama-life” through another character’s perspective. It reminds me of those “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern”-esque books that bring us the main story from another POV.

I hope they pull something like this with a second lead and call it a comedy lol. I know some K-movies tried it and 500 Days of Summer was very much a second lead kind of story lol. 😀

Very interesting. I want her to succeed with her lie, too. Aww, Yoo-hyun is so sweet. I hate his hair but he is so sweet.
My heart was crushed. Poor Myung-hoon. I really felt bad about his marriage. It was painful to watch him. He was so sad.
Random notes:He is very atractive. He is not handsome but he has a
certain air, i dont know.
Hee-joo. I cant picture her angry. I like her, always smiling.
Im happy with this drama so far. Its not the usual drama I watch and the change of airs feels good. It doesnt have any boring moment for me and I want more.

I’m rooting for miri too. But I am not rooting for her being a couple with yoohyun. He’s such a nice sweet boy that it just makes me want to tell him that it’s best to mind his own business and not pay any more attention to that girl. Of course that’s not gonna happen.

So far I am loving MR to daMax, I like my “Melos,” like I like my coffee “Dark and Bitter.”

Miri is on the highway to hell, and I am happy to follow, I do like “the Amber Hue” of the cinematography.

This drama having Japanese investors seem that is kinda taking some aspects of J-Dorama melodramas, an if I am not mistaken Japanese tend not to have happy endings in their melodramas, so mentally I am preparing for our heroine not to to make it out if not alive at least completely destroy in the process, almost like “A Million Stars Falling From The Sky,” something the “Bad Guy” aim to accomplished, but did not fan very well at the end, lets hope that MR have a good ending!!!!!!

we all know Miri is far from having a peachy, happy ending… but can’t the girl have a bittersweet run? Just even for a while. well, at least the two men are sprung with her, but i wonder if she will sincerely love one of them.

Hmm it’s been a while since i’ve seen a good melo but if Lee Da Hae does All About Eve Kang Hye Jin’s character i’ll find my self rooting for Kang Hye Jin. I already like her character a lot more than Lee Da Hae’s. The story is pretty predictacble with Lee DaHae becoming the object of desire but nonetheless it’s pretty good. Also it was nice to see Hwang Ji Hyun and the drama is really well acted.

Thanks for the super fast recap, GF!
Am really liking this drama (for the plot) and hating it (for the AWFUL music). It’s jarring, LOUD and the music selections are really unsuitable for the contemporary drama.

It’s pretty bad when the “background” music practically drowns out the speaking actors. (Makes me think of PK and the big smooch scene where the dialogue was drowned out by the Niagara Falls rainstorm!)

Also had to laugh at GF’s “Hotel A” comment. Truer words were never spoken, but this might turn into a positive for us, should the plot start to go south. Hotel A can always be renamed – i.e., Hotel A’nnnywherebuthere’….

Overall, this was a strong 2nd episode – but was anyone else skeeved out by LDN following that creepy guy down into the basement – complete with a big, iron-barred door?
I guess serving drinks in a fluorescent red wig can toughen a girl up…

I know, right? The drama doesn’t look THAT bad, not as slick as certain dramas but not terribly bad. But then add the 90s melodrama music and it feels exactly like a 90s melodrama although the acting and plot are in my opinion really elevating it.

yutaka-da hae
but i dont think kim seung woo and kang hye jung would have signed up for ordinary second lead roles so i think this will be evenly split between the four leads.

in other words not a clue (but figuring it out is half the fun :D)
i have a hunch that whilst yutaka-miri is OTP hee ju might get her guy, and miri ends up with nobody and KSW’s character will get some kind of closure for his crappy life.

nooo.
i really dont think so.
i dont think this drama has much to do with birth secrets from miri’s standpoint.
There might be one within yutakas own life (which appears perfect but actually is not)
i dont see any possibilty of faux incest.
That is just too cliched, i have more faith in this drama.

Thanks for the recap!! Not watching the series, but am following it via the recaps on this website. I’m also rooting for Miri. I was wondering how the series was going to really make us sympathize with a character loosely based on an infamous real-life figure who faked her education status – but Miri’s moral struggle really sealed my loyalty. What I hope now is that the drama will resist focusing too much on the romance in the later episodes.

I knew it….I knew I was going to love this and I was right. Never really bothered with Lie To Me coz I knew where that was going to lead pretty much into. Miss Ripley is ripping my morality already. I’m rooting for the heroine too even if she going to be somewhat evil.

There are melodramas and there are MELODRAMAS. I normally prefer rom/coms as well but some melos I’ve watched were really good and memorable so this may be just like that.

To be fair to LDH, her role in Chuno was okay, but I just prefered the second female lead. Plus, as soon as the story moved away from Jang Hyuk’s quartet, my interest in following the plot just plummeted…

As for My Girl… till now I still don’t get the fuss. Watched it as one of my earlier K-drama experiences, don’t mind it, but cannot understand the near universal love for it. Each to our own, eh?!

Wasn’t going to pay attention to this show but some how I ended up checking it out and am I’m totally digging Miri and Myung-hoon pairing – there is something there between the two although its still early. As for the actual show still 50/50. (It’s totally owning the ratings. Nicely done I must say ^^)

I don’t really care much on the ratings of a drama I’m watching but this time I’m like, oh yes please crush the competition! I can’t believe I’m cheering Lee Da Hae’s drama more than the other that’s in last place. =)

thanks for recap, GF!!!
Seems like a worth watching drama to me…
Is it me and my eyes only, i think there’s something different in lee dae hee’s face…but i just don’t know where… Is she thinner or smthg… Hmm… Or her make up…